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Few topics generate more conversation at the school gate than homework but there is little discussion amongst educationalists or teachers during their training or in practice. Yet these issues demand consideration by all who care about young people. Homework – what Alfie Kohn terms “this modern cod liver oil” - has come to dominate home life for many children, starting in the kindergarten, taking longer and longer and often encouraged by ambitious parents in a misguided focus on competition. Parents watch their children “mechanically grind out their assignments, perhaps frustrated by those that are too difficult, bored by those that are too easy, perhaps exhausted from having to do too much.” Why? Because we are under the illusion that it’s good for the children. It helps to consolidate schoolwork, it teaches independence and responsibility and good work habits, it raises attainment, or so the argument goes. Alfie Kohn demonstrates how these assumptions are not based upon the results of research, commonsense or the experience of parents or teachers and he urges a reconsideration of long held and unquestioned beliefs. He suggests that there is almost no evidence that homework provides benefits for young children and raises serious questions about the advantages it brings to older students.

His findings are strongly supported in their book by Sara Bennett, an attorney, and Nancy Kalish, an educational writer and editor, both of whom are friends and - more importantly - parents. “The Case Against Homework” was published just a few months after Kohn’s in 2006. It uses a wide raft of experiences to show how too much homework is having a negative effect on our children’s achievement and development. The reader is given practical advice on not only how to manage homework, but also to negotiate with teachers and work towards achieving policy changes by schools’ education systems.

The issue of homework has been around a long time. In the early 1900s doctors headed a movement to abolish homework of all kinds, saying that children needed at least 5 hours of fresh air every day. An article by a school superintendent in “Parent” magazine in 1937 questioned the necessity and nature of homework. Hyper-competitiveness to keep up with other countries in the 50s race for economic and military supremacy is blamed for beginning the modern rush to give more and more work to be done at home. It is rarely a follow up to a task that needs finishing and is usually predetermined in amount and subject for each night. The 60s and 70s saw a move towards more free time but in the search to apportion blame for the weak economy of the 1980s, education was a scapegoat and the call for more homework was loud and clear. All was based on the assumption that homework boosts standardised test scores that in turn boost business, assumptions that are not correlated by any study. In the US the Department of Education brochure describes the 80s as a time when “homework came back into favour” for it was seen as a powerful way “to stem the rising tide of mediocrity in American Education”. A very shaky foundation for homework even though most parents (and teachers) believe that the schools must know what they are doing.

Is homework beneficial? Kohn concludes that it is not. He describes it as
- a burden on parents who need to be pretty fresh at the end of the day to help,
- stressful for children, describing it as an endurance test “causing a loss of sleep, of self esteem, of cheer, and of childhood”,
- a cause of family conflict,
- depriving youngsters of time for other physical and creative activities and time to be a child or even to rest,
- leading to a loss of interest in learning. “It extinguishes the flame of curiosity”.

Bennett and Kalish base their writings on research and on the views of many parents, teachers and students. Their book is full of real-life stories some of which you will find in the Appendix to this review. Few teachers have any training in homework during their teacher training and even fewer are aware of the results of research. Pupils are given homework at an earlier and earlier age, even the youngest kindergarten child whose attention span is still very short. Homework spills over into the weekends and holidays, they report, curtailing family visits and activities, chill-out time, reading time, and perhaps most worrying of all family meals, so valuable for talking over the events of the day. Much homework requires parental support and help, thus extending the working day for parents to unendurable lengths and resulting in friction, conflict and tears. Siblings feel ignored when other children need more help. “Homework makes home an emotional tinderbox”.

They have much to say about the messages homework gives.

• Work is more important than family time or other activities.
• Homework needs help from parents, since in the early years it cannot be done without this support. (So much for teaching independence!)
• Learning is drudgery when 40 similar sums are set. After 5 you know that you can do them and so are bored. Or you know that you can’t and are frustrated and demoralized.
• Only an A is good enough; only getting it right will do.
• Children can all too easily recognise “busy work”, homework set because the schedule demands it, work which is tedious and pointless.

But parents see lots of homework as part of the race to be the best and schools claim that it gives parents an insight into the school curriculum and objectives for their children. They can demonstrate their interest in the child’s progress. Do you need homework to achieve those things, ask Bennett and Kalish. Arguments ‘for’ claim that it teaches responsibility, study skills, perseverance, neatness, and time management. At best these claims are unsubstantiated. There is no convincing case made in any of the research. The students rarely choose the task or the time or the method. On the contrary, research demonstrates that humans do best when they are in control. “People are not passive receptacles – they are active meaning makers” (Kohn).

Yet research findings that demonstrate against the advantages of homework are disregarded. “We know that homework is good for kids and we’re not going to let the facts get in the way” (a parent quoted by Kohn). He claims that educators focus on “behaviour management” rather than on “reasons and needs and the children who have them”. We question how much homework but ignore the big question “should there be any? “ “ Does it make children better thinkers?”

Above all homework is readily accepted because of fundamental misconceptions about the nature of learning. Homework gives a student time but we know that is of little value unless it is “engaged time”. It gives practice which might improve behavioural responses by “drill and kill” but does not develop meanings and connections. Bennett and Kalish ask “How can it be valuable to make children do more and more of what they cannot do?” and if they can do it “surely three or four problems solved shows that they have got it.?” Does a model of learning in which class time is used for the student to “sit ’n git” and home time for practice, (a “transmission model”), go with the grain of the brain? Surely reading, writing, discussing and reflecting with immediate feedback would be more effective. Our knowledge of how humans learn shows us that what matters are the needs, goals and attitudes that lie behind what a child does. “To consider learning is to look at the assignments kids are given in a different light”, (Kohn)

Kohn gives a picture of the “tougher standards movement” which has fuelled the race for parents to expect more and more homework and teachers to feel they have to set it. Many in Britain will recognize that and it should give us a blunt warning. “State schools are lousy and kids are lazy”. Standards have been “dumbed down and salvation lies in raising the bar”. So classrooms have become “”test-preparation centres……..what remains of decent teaching has been squeezed out”. Dewey reminded us that “the value of what students do resides in its connection with a stimulation of greater thoughtfulness, not in the greater stress it imposes”. Is it winning or learning which is the goal? asks Kohn.
Both books quote parents who use the excuse “It’s a competitive world!” to explain their stressed-out, time-starved child. A newspaper reports parents hiring tutors for two year olds and children learn that approval and love is conditional on doing well. “The only winners are the officials who claim the credit for the higher standards. The losers are the children, straining like beasts of burden to pull the adults to glory”. (Kohn) You must begin the workload and practice of homework early because they “better get used to it”. “Vinegary moralisation” says Kohn, and, just like unpleasant medicine, it must be good for you.

All three authors detect in our society a basic distrust of children and how they would choose to spend their time. We don’t trust children or their parents or non-traditional learning. We invent “busy work” to “keep children busy.” The question is: What are they busy about? And the result? “Homework overload from Montana to Mississippi to Maine” (Bennett and Kalish). “We need down-time after work and so do they”. The 21st Century Learning Initiative’s President’s question “Do we want our children to be Battery Hens or Free Range Chickens?” urges us to reflect on the loss of freedom for our young people to make decisions for themselves.

Kohn describes the current default position for homework as “assign it regularly” and asks for a change to “no homework” as the default, with tasks assigned only when they are appropriate and worthwhile for older students. He speaks to teachers in his third section of the book “Restoring Sanity”. “Can it be right to plan a lesson on the assumption that all homework has been completed?” he challenges. “He suggests good homework, involving the active learning of the child; reading to little ones in order to spark off conversation and to make connections. “Good teachers know that children make good choices by making decisions not by following directions”. Kohn’s advice to us all is “Ask the students, move incrementally and be brave – experiment. Bring in the parents, remember that one size never did fit all and stop grading. Work should be shared amongst the class not penalized when it is incorrect.” His final thoughts return to the family: “family comes first, children come first and real learning comes first” and “if homework persists because of a myth, we owe it to our kids – to all kids – to insist on a policy that is based on what is true and what makes sense.” In turn, Bennett and Kalish conclude with a guide for action for parents and teachers who want to listen. They show them how to become “the child’s advocate” and, in the 21st Century Learning Initiative’s terms, “a responsible subversive”.

If there is any doubt about the effectiveness and value of homework we ought to encourage ourselves, and one another, to rethink basic assumptions about its inevitability and desirability. There are examples of good practice to be found in both books (some from Britain) but these are outnumbered by warning bells that alert us to the worrying fact that young people may not be “the best they can be”, because we are not asking the right questions.

Appendix 1. The research

. According to a 2001 review of more than 120 studies of homework and its effects by Professor Harris Cooper of Duke University, the US’s leading homework researcher, and his updated 2006 review of an additional sixty studies, there is very little correlation between the amount of homework and achievement in elementary school and only a moderate correlation in middle school. Even in high school, "too much homework may diminish its effective-ness or even become counterproductive," writes Cooper in his latest research review (Harris Cooper, The Battle Over Homework, second edition, page 26, and Does Homework Improve Academic Achievement? A Synthesis of the Re-search 1987-2003, the Review of Educational Research [Spring 2006).
. Many countries with the highest scoring students on achievement tests, such as Japan, Denmark, and the Czech Republic, have teachers who assign little homework. Meanwhile, countries such as Greece, Thailand, and Iran, where students have some of the worst average scores, have teachers who assign a lot of homework. American and British students do as much homework as their peers in other countries-if not more-but still manage only to score around the international average (National Differences, Global Similarities: World Culture and the Future of Schooling by David P. Baker –and Gerald K Le Tendre, Stanford University Press,2OO5);
-Most teachers do not take courses specifically on homework during teacher training. In fact, research shows that the great majority are unaware of the research on the problems with homework (Stephen Aloia, "Teacher Assessment of Homework:' Academic Exchange Quarterly [Fall 2003]). That's why, as Pro-fessor Cooper told the authors of The Case Against Homework, when it comes to homework, "Most teachers are winging it:”

Appendix 2. Recommended Homework guides.

According to Professor Cooper, kids should be assigned no more than ten minutes per grade level per school night (Monday through Thursday only). In other words, this adds up to ten minutes in first grade, twenty minutes in sec-ond grade, and so on, up to a maximum of two hours per night in high school (Harris Cooper, The Battle Over Homework, second edition, page 26). An on-line poll showed that the average elementary pupil spent 78 minutes per night on homework. The same poll gave many 10 year olds a longer working week than the average adult, 42.5 hours.
. The National Education Association and National Parent Teacher Association recommend no more than ten to twenty minutes of homework per night in grades K through 2, and thirty to sixty minutes per night in grades 3 through 6.
- Some education experts, such as Etta Kralovec, associate professor I teacher education University of Arizona South, and coauthor of The Error of Homework:. How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning recommend none.
- The British Government’s “Standards Site” recommends one hour a week for Years ! and 2, an hour and a half for Years 3 and 4 and a maximum of 30 minutes a day for Years 5 and 6. For secondary school pupils the recommendation is 45 to 90 minutes a day in years 7 and 8 increasing to a maximum of 2 hours by the end of Key Stage 3. British High School students are recommended to have up to 2 and a half hours during their GCSE years, 10 and 11.

Appendix 3. Additional information.

A 2006 national Scholastic Yankelovich study found that reading for fun declined sharply after age eight. The number one reason: too much homework.
. Kids between the ages of five and twelve need ten to eleven hours of sleep each night; teens need 9.25 hours. According to the National Sleep Foundation's 2004 Sleep in America Poll, 54 percent of first through fifth graders sleep just 9 to 10 hours each night and 17 percent sleep less than 9 hours. According to the Foundation's 2006 poll, 80 percent of teens don’t get the recommended amount of sleep. At least 28 percent fall asleep in school and 20percent fall asleep doing homework, all facts: National Sleep Foundation, www.sleepfoundation.org).
According to a large study by the University of Michigan, family meals are the single strongest predictor of better achievement scores and fewer behavior problems for children 3 to 12(Journal of Marriage and the Family May 2001). In this survey 42% of families did not eat together during the week and young people had 12 hours a week less free time than in 1981.
According to the American Psychological Association, typical schoolchildren today report more anxiety than did child psychiatric patients in the 1950 (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, December 2000).
Health. Kids are more sedentary than ever before, and homework is a contributing factor. A 2004 survey revealed that time spent on homework has increased by 515 since 1981. Since 1981, the amount of time kids spend playing sports has decreased by 58 percent for six to eight-year-olds, 19 percent for nine to eleven-year olds, 43 percent for twelve- to fourteen-year-olds, and 28 percent for fifteen to seventeen-year-olds (Changing Times of American Youth: 1981-2003, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 2004). Since 1980, the number of overweight children in the United States has tripled, according to a 2004 report by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Even since 2000 there's been a significant increase: 17.1 percent of American kids under nineteen are now considered overweight (Journal of the American Medical Association, June 2004), and the CDC predicts that one in three children born in 2000 will become diabetic (Journal of the American Medical Association October 2003). CDC recommends 60 minutes of vigorous exercise daily and reports that 64% of children suffer from back pain, perhaps explained by the weight of their backpacks, 43% of their body weight on average,

Appendix 4. Quotes and thoughts

John Dewey “ The most important attitude that can be formed is that of the desire to go on learning”
A Californian teacher; “When intrigued by a good lesson and freed from homework pupils naturally seek out more knowledge and hand me articles and news reports”.
“Whose homework is it when a Kindergarten child who can’t yet read is asked to produce a book review?”
“Homework is my life. It is all I do. Every day I cannot bear to wake up. I hate homework. I cannot believe how much of my childhood has been wasted on homework. I will never have that time again. All I can think of is school. Help!” a young teenager.
A 15 year old asked “Don’t give me a book as a Christmas present. I won’t have time to read it.” Her holiday assignments was to read four set books and to write an essay on each.
A parent wrote “We had to pay $88 for modelling clay and because the supermarket had run out, (other parents got there before us), travel to three different malls, in order for our daughter to make a model of a volcano which the teacher dropped before she could assess it.”
A 6 year old from a New York Charter School had the following summer holiday tasks – 10 books to read
- 10 book reports to write
- maths assignments
- a report on China to include an essay and a hand made doll in costume
- a daily log of activities and the weather.
“Sometimes I feel like the world is about to drop from right beneath me like a ride in an amusement park. I cannot for my life balance anything – like time, homework or just getting a snack. I have to rush, rush, rush, rush, rush through my days, actually through all 7 days and that’s 7 days of my life wasted.” These are the words of a 10 year old from Brooklyn.
Let Professor William Cain have the final word, “homework is making learning a miserable experience for many students”.

Homework and Attainment in Primary Schools

British Educational Research Journal
Authors: Steve Farrow a; Peter Tymms a; Brtaft_Heffljerson a Affiliation: a School of Education, University Of Bt:trham.

This study is worth investigation as it gives some insightful comments on the arguments for and against the setting of homework in primary schools. In general terms the findings of the report show what appears to be a paradox: the less homework set the higher the test scores. At primary level, where basic skills are so vital, teachers are tempted to give homework in order to encourage pupils to overcome difficulties, but too much homework at primary age can de-motivate young children, leaving them frustrated and under stress. It is not a viable argument to insist that just because secondary schools support homework primary schools should go down the same route.

To set or not to set homework has long been a contentious issue and historically its use or non-use as a supplement to the curriculum has been influenced by socio-economic factors. When standards appear to be dropping pressure is put on school to up the homework. This in turn is eventually seen to be detrimental to family life because of the extra pressure on parents and children and so homework loses its popularity - until the pendulum swings the other way again.

Homework is not seen as totally disadvantageous, It can increase performance when given in sensible quantities and when the pupil sees the significance of a piece of work in relation to their individual need, but this is usually easier for secondary pupils to understand than it is for those of primary school age. Homework loses its usefulness when the nature and the quality of the work set are of dubious value. It is obviously important that any work set for a pupil to do at home should be clear, interesting and relevant. The report shows that homework is most valuable where teachers are confident (a) about the whole idea of homework, (b) that they have planned it with sufficient care and time, and (c) that they are prepared to give follow up the assignment with grading and written and/or verbal feedback.

It is argued that homework provides a bridge of communication between parent and school. But this is often a misconception. Many parents will not admit that homework can be the cause of much friction, frustration and angst with the home at a time of the day when the family unit is in need of relaxation. Parents are frequently upset because they are unable to help their children sufficiently to do the homework properly, or they end up doing the work for their child, which is counter-productive. The best solution to date is the setting up of homework clubs where professional help is on tap for children. But this so far is only present at secondary level. For young children at primary level this just may not be a practical option.

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21st Century Learning Initiative

http://www.21learn.org

mail@21learn.org